If

Poetry. "Leonard Schwartz follows a swarm of 'ifs' that lead through a series of hypotheses to a subjunctive space where hope and doubt lovingly and painfully intertwine. Here, we are shown how 'a thing seen is a journey in itself' whether that thing is the spot 'where beavers come out,' or a coffee mug bearing an emblem of a lake. IF reminds us how 'poetry is an arrangement of time,' and, miraculously, floods us with both the time of experience and the time of thought, always asking, 'if collecting visible things / Demonstrates the presence of invisible things.' If it is possible to combine rapture and analysis, if it is possible to be caught up in a thoughtful enchantment, IF is that brilliant spell."—Catherine Taylor

"Kierkegaard wrote Either/Or, and then he said 'If/Then.' His If was singular (If there is God...), but Leonard Schwartz's IF is plural: If we are one or many. If we are prisoners or free. If we live on forever or we end. If there s a center of the world or not. If we can understand. If we are human or divine or both. If we are magic. If we can love can love past death or nothing can. If failure is the proof that we re alive. This is a profound and moving book, a modern book of wisdom that merits rereading again and again and again."—Rebecca Brown